usually they advertise last years bikes available from dealers , not this year ,available pdi'd

direct from them , now the s3 bike ,they already supply parts direct , trials and enduro direct . is this a sign of the times??

Think Gas Gas has always sold bikes direct to public. Since this is a custom build in house then it's right gguk sell it.....otherwise which dealer would you give it too??

Gas Gas seem to do what they want. they should support dealers who got them to where they are now.

all my experiences with Gas Gas uk have made me never buy one again.

I believe all importers sell bikes direct to the public in some shape or form.

Pidcocks certainly have a showroom open 6 days a week, Birkett does with the ossa saunders is going to with the jotagas and so on.

The buisness model for selling trials bikes has undergone change over the years which is only natural with the advent of the internet surely?

What is your objection specifically?

They dont sell last years model cheap, no dealer to take his cut, no loss to gguk.

I can't see that it matters providing the importer doesn't undercut the retailer.

I recently needed a small component, I rang a well known dealer in Stroud who put one on order as they were showing out of stock.

I also tried Gas Gas UK and ordered one from them also. Bike was 'off the road' until the part arrrived and it was a cheap item, so I thought it would be worth having a spare anyway.

Two packets arrived a week or so later, both on the same day. One from the dealer and one straight from Gas Gas.

To my suprise, the item from the dealer was £3.50 and the identical part from the Importer was £5.00.

In this case, it's good to see that the importer did not undercut their dealer.

Gas Gas seem to do what they want. they should support dealers who got them to where they are now.

all my experiences with Gas Gas uk have made me never buy one again.

I believe that GGUK prefer that you buy from your nearest dealer so as to share the business around. My experience of using dealers compared to GGUK is a complete no brainer. I have not come across a dealer with as much knowledge, experience and time for their customers, that go out of their way to talk to you at a trial, to phone you up when they hear you've been injured at a trial to check you're ok etc etc, as the people who work for Shirty.

I know everyone's experience of dealers/main dealers is different and this is just my experience but, I have friends who ride other marques and have never heard them talking of great experiences with dealers etc.

My experience with Gas Gas UK has been nothing other that first class service. A couple of weekends ago I went to stock up ready for the lads SSDT excursion and needed a replacement water pump seal. Surprisingly they were out of stock, but on Monday morning I got a text from Kev saying he had a spare in the workshop from Browney's bike and it arrived in the post the next day. They have always sold ex-demo's and supported riders bikes. You can pick up a new bike direct from GG UK but the sale usually goes through a dealers books.

Have to agree with the above post, nothing but great service from Gas Gas UK (and also from any other the GG dealers I have dealt with) since my first Gas Gas way back in 1989.

Trials has an odd (and unsustainable) business model. In most manufacturer/importer distributer/dealer relationships the distributers/dealers serve an essential function not usually known by the customer. That of buffer/storage. For most manufacturers/importers it would be financially impossible to stock all the parts necessary to serve demand. By each dealer keeping a small stock of parts that are paid for up front the manufacturers can maintain a larger footprint than they would be able to if they had to pay themselves for all the spare parts necessary to support a market. That's the way it works in the semiconductor business. The distributers place large orders from manufacturers and by marking up the parts the distributers can handle the smaller orders at a profit and the manufacturers can service the large accounts directly. In trials every novice rider has the phone number of the importer on speed dial and will bypass the local dealer to save a few bob and there'll be hell to pay if they don't get it at the same price as the dealer.

This Walmart effect is a relatively recent phenomenon made possible by the internet. It has in many ways damaged the sport as most dealers who were barely scratching enough money out of trials now find it impossible to afford being a dealer. The main problem with this is most trials riders are very close to their dealers. They see them at events, they ride with them and as a courtesy they buy from them. Unfortunately when the local dealer has to undercut the importer price or the price of a more aggressive dealer they go broke and quit no matter how much they love the sport. That means the loss of the major recruiters for the sport, the small dealer.

The jotagas importer will not sell direct to the public. I emailed Steve to order mine and he asked me to go through a dealer , so i have. We had a good chat about the bike. A philosophy i have , is that the smaller company you deal with the better the experience.